Tudor Clothes for Boys

I’ve been working away trying to finish making the outfit for my boy character, Thomas Munmore, before publication date for my new book, Road to London on April 3rd. I finished sewing Alice’s clothes some time ago (see the earlier diary page) and at last I’ve finished Thomas’s outfit. Three cheers! Now when I do events in schools the children will be able to see what Thomas and Alice would look like in Tudor England. They can even try the costumes on, if they’d like to.

This is Thomas when he’s just got out of bed. He’s wearing a shirt which he would have slept in and would probably wear all day, too. He would wash his hands and face before getting dressed and leaving for school but he definitely wouldn’t have a shower – unless he jumped into the river.

Now he’s wearing his trousers which are nothing like jeans, of course. They are loose and baggy and are called Venetian hose/ They are made of wool and Thomas has tucked his linen shirt into them.

Thomas wears a wool jacket over his shirt and this is called a doublet.

If his doublet and hose got dirty, he would have to brush the dirt off as best he could. Wool wasn’t easy to wash.

This is Thomas ready to leave home to go to school. His hat is also made of wool and he would be expected to wear it as he walked across Stratford-on-Avon for a long day at the King’s New School. He was lucky that he was clever enough to be accepted into the school. Many boys of his age would already be working and might never learn to read or write. At school, his books would be in Latinand he would learn to translate them and learn passages off by heart.